Tips for newbie trying to play it?

[Bradlely]

Would this ever be legally, technically or economically feasible? I,ve been trying to get into Wasteland, but the fact the dialog is all in the manual etc and the sheer age of the graphics makes it somewhat arduous to a graphically spoilt person like myself. Any tips that might help ease my transition back to 1988? Music to play in the background?

[Drool]

Just give it a chance. If you don't have a copy of the paragraphs, they can be found here. There are far more important things than graphics out there. Don't be that guy.

[The Tallest]

What Drool said. We've all become accustomed to insanely great graphics and mediocre stories. But if you give Wasteland a few minutes you'll realize that at it's core it is an incredible game.

And having to reference the book is part of the fun. You can also find a link to the Wasteland Survival Guide in one of the threads as well, which is also quite helpful. It too has the paragraphs.

[SDF121]

Yeah, I gave up on my initial playthrough of Wasteland because I never had access to the manual which is essential. While I have yet to get around to playing Wasteland, I have seen a fair amount of LP's and Retrospectives on the game. Plus, I figure that I have a good year to get around to playing Wasteland before the Wasteland 2 beta comes around. Before I do though, are there any recommendations with regard to character builds? In other words, are there any skills that are absolutely useless?

[Drool]

Combat Shooting, for one. Knife Fighting and Throwing can be skipped unless you're planning on using knives, obviously. Likewise AT Weapon. Things like bureaucracy and metallurgy are pretty skippable. From the firearms group, you could safely skip Rifle as, in general, the two rifles in the game aren't worth bothering with; you can easily jump from SMGs right to assault rifles.

[HavocSlayer]

Yeah, I gave up on my initial playthrough of Wasteland because I never had access to the manual which is essential. While I have yet to get around to playing Wasteland, I have seen a fair amount of LP's and Retrospectives on the game. Plus, I figure that I have a good year to get around to playing Wasteland before the Wasteland 2 beta comes around. Before I do though, are there any recommendations with regard to character builds? In other words, are there any skills that are absolutely useless?

PDFs of the manual and paragraphs can be found at Desert Ranger Outpost, here. Reading the manual is an absolute must for older games; I couldn't figure out how to advance time (until I read the manual, lol). *Spoiler* - press escape.

[FalloutWaster]

Greetings all,

I've just gotten into Wasteland earlier today for the first time. I'm at the point in the game where my Rangers are encountering things that cause damage levels of CRT or SER. I have Snake Vargas with a Medic skill of 2, I try use the skill on my guys, but when I do it says in the text box:

"Who do you want to heal?" Then when I click to try heal a guy who is CRT or SER it says: "You didn't help Thrasher"

I've tried repeating the process many times and it's getting tough to move on in the game with these injuries occuring. Just wondering if there is some step in the process I am missing? Have searched around on the web and it seems the medic skills my Snake Vargas has should be sufficient to bring their status back to UNC...

So any tips from the pro's?

[ad1066]

Greetings all,

I've just gotten into Wasteland earlier today for the first time. I'm at the point in the game where my Rangers are encountering things that cause damage levels of CRT or SER. I have Snake Vargas with a Medic skill of 2, I try use the skill on my guys, but when I do it says in the text box:

"Who do you want to heal?" Then when I click to try heal a guy who is CRT or SER it says: "You didn't help Thrasher"

I've tried repeating the process many times and it's getting tough to move on in the game with these injuries occuring. Just wondering if there is some step in the process I am missing? Have searched around on the web and it seems the medic skills my Snake Vargas has should be sufficient to bring their status back to UNC...

So any tips from the pro's?

Set up a macro to heal the guy, and just keep trying it.

-- Ben

[FalloutWaster]

That's it!? Hehehe

So I was doing things right! but I just need to repeat (U)se - (1)Snake Vargas - (S)kill - (8)Medic - (character number) - (Enter), many,many times to hit a good medic roll of the dice eh?
Been a few years since fiddling with Macros, but should figure it out.

Thanks for the nudge Ben! Will give it a go..

[Drool]

Yup. Critical can be tough to heal with only a Medic of 2. "You didn't help Thrasher" just means you failed your roll. Luckily, failure doesn't chew up any in-game time, so you can try again and again.

Eventually, you should have a high enough IQ for Doctor (costs 3 skill points) which works a lot better.

[Son of Max]

Combat Shooting, for one. Knife Fighting and Throwing can be skipped unless you're planning on using knives, obviously. Likewise AT Weapon. Things like bureaucracy and metallurgy are pretty skippable. From the firearms group, you could safely skip Rifle as, in general, the two rifles in the game aren't worth bothering with; you can easily jump from SMGs right to assault rifles.

The two rifles in the game aren't useless at all, in fact, they're highly desirable in every location before Vegas. They become totally useless in Vegas, but prior to that, their range and damage are tough to beat especially in the acquisition of the beloved assault rifles and SMGs.

I actually make a point of completing Highpool and then making a run to Quartz, busting up the gang members card game at the back of Scott's Bar and then selling off the pistols acquired to that point to get a pair of M19s before going to the Ag Center.

Harry and his little armored varmints go down VERY quickly under rifle fire. The damage (and range) makes the Ag Center a breeze, thus opening up the cash cow of the Ag Center store (They pay the most for jewelry and fruit out of any store in the game and by a wide margin, I might add) that allows you to pile up cash very quickly. Range and damage of the M19s makes cutting up Ugly's gang (and Ugly himself) A LOT faster at a lower expenditure of ammo too.

In Needles, the fastest way to an assault rifle is to hit the waste pit and then blow away the Pit Goul at range with effective rifle fire (and a few bursts from Ugly's Uzi) after which you can scoop up an M1989A1 and a Rad Suit from the room in the southwest corner of the chamber. Then it's off to mop up the Jerks and grab the Jerk Leader's AK-97.

Never dismiss effective rifle fire in Wasteland.

The M19 and M17 make the toughest opponents in the early parts of the game tumble with one shot if you do it right.

Rule of Thumb: The Pit Ghoul fears the rifle (plus a well placed Sabot Rocket and a mag dump from the Uzi) and he's guarding the first assault rifle in the game. Jerks fear the rifle. Pistols don't do squat to them. Rifles spin them into a dance of death with a couple of shots. Makes getting that second assault rifle that much easier...but it's wise to have some grenades handy too.

Rifle: You don't have to take it...but it makes the early going SOOOO much easier if you do.

Personally, in Wasteland 2, I'd like to see the M19 turned into a semi-auto only M14 clone, complete with 20 shot magazine and it's real world ammo. The 7.62x51mm would be a 6d6 round if the 7.62x39mm (the 7.62mm of Wasteland) is a 5d6 round. Also makes long range combat much more effective and gives the M19 a longer game life.

Make that adjustment to the M19 and watch it turn into a player favorite and Rifle skill turn into one of the 'Must Have' skills in EVERYBODY'S mind.

[FalloutWaster]

Thanks Ben,

Macros are working like a charm!

Just arrived somewhere in a car, found a police station with some loot bags. Exchanged Jackie for Mort (slight improvement) working my way in and out to grab the stuff before all my guys get riddled by the auto-gun

Yeah Rifles, bought a couple in Quartz, taking melee enemies out from across the room, much nicer!

[Proton Axeman]

Combat Shooting, for one. Knife Fighting and Throwing can be skipped unless you're planning on using knives, obviously. Likewise AT Weapon. Things like bureaucracy and metallurgy are pretty skippable. From the firearms group, you could safely skip Rifle as, in general, the two rifles in the game aren't worth bothering with; you can easily jump from SMGs right to assault rifles.

AT weapons come in handy at a certain place in Vegas, or when cracking the Citadel. Sure, you can beat the Citadel with just assault rifles, but that takes a tremendous amount of ammunition.

[Son of Max]

Combat Shooting, for one. Knife Fighting and Throwing can be skipped unless you're planning on using knives, obviously. Likewise AT Weapon. Things like bureaucracy and metallurgy are pretty skippable. From the firearms group, you could safely skip Rifle as, in general, the two rifles in the game aren't worth bothering with; you can easily jump from SMGs right to assault rifles.

AT weapons come in handy at a certain place in Vegas, or when cracking the Citadel. Sure, you can beat the Citadel with just assault rifles, but that takes a tremendous amount of ammunition.

I don't think it's possible to survive the sewers without AT weapons.

I've said it before elsewhere: The Sewers are one of the most ridiculously unbalanced areas I've ever seen in a game. I'm pretty sure Laser Pistols were supposed to be more effective against the big 'borgs, but they weren't and as a result, they're damn near useless for little more than a clip rip then sell it off for the cash and buy rockets.

[Drool]

I don't think it's possible to survive the sewers without AT weapons.

It is, I do it all the time. It chews up a lot of 7.62, but I usually have plenty of money by then.

[FalloutWaster]

Getting into this game now!

Things are running a lot smoother now that I can heal people using the Macros.

Have a couple of Medics, everyone has Assault Rifles, dumped Mort for Christina and my car is fixed.

Time to leave Needles

[ad1066]

I don't think it's possible to survive the sewers without AT weapons.

I've said it before elsewhere: The Sewers are one of the most ridiculously unbalanced areas I've ever seen in a game. I'm pretty sure Laser Pistols were supposed to be more effective against the big 'borgs, but they weren't and as a result, they're damn near useless for little more than a clip rip then sell it off for the cash and buy rockets.

The last couple of times I played through the game, I stuck to all-melee, and the sewers was fairly easy, though to be fair, I kind of cheated and went straight to Darwin and upgraded to chainsaws as soon as I had the cash (not as difficult as you'd think, they're only $500 each, and I had a ton of cash from never buying ammo). I only had to switch to ranged weapons by the time I got to the citadel (and had collected some decent energy weapons by then).

So yes, the enemies in the sewers are unbalanced, but so is Brawling, so it all evens out.

-- Ben

[Hell Razor]

Yeah, melee, and in particular pugilism, are actually a bit overpowered in this game. I always restrict myself to only one melee character, to keep things somewhat balanced, but even that one character can clear through anything with no problems. If you build a party of all melee and just keep one shooter for the occassional ranged enemy that keeps running or that you can't move to, then combat becomes ridiculously easy. You just have to get close, and then you pummel anything into pulp.

If you're playing a traditional shooting character, I agree that rifle is a great skill for a typical playthrough. Clip pistol, rifle, SMG, assault rifle, energy weapons. They all have their uses at various stages of the game. Depending on how you progress, you'll likely find at least one of those that doesn't get used for very long before you move onto the next. For me it was usually SMG - I'd find ARs almost immedately after I started using SMGs. Or, some people say to skip clip pistol and just use melee in the beginning. But like I said, you can skip everything and just use melee if you want.

Regardless, if you're taking your time through the game and using shooters, you can definitely find yourself naturally progressing through each of the weapons skills, and all of them useful during their time. Clip pistol does the trick early on. Rifles are a huge benefit over clip pistols in Quartz. SMGs make the difference in Needles. ARs get used a lot when you're in Vegas and towards the end of the game, and then energy weapons are your main guns in the last parts of the game. They're all good.

I almost never used AT weapons, but if you don't have a powerful melee character, then AT weapons might be the only way to hit the worst enemies hard (pit ghoul, scorpitron, guardians).

[MrMoe]

How does the weapon and other skill training actually work?

Do I have to fight high tier enemies to raise to certain skill threshold, or swim in the sewers instead of the high pool pool to get better?

[Drool]

I believe any use can raise levels. Certain actions like ripping a clip with automatic weapons increases levels faster, so it may be a matter of "Do X damage to get level 2; do X+Y for level 3"